DOING YOUR FIRST HIKE

 “SPEAK ONLY IF IT

IMPROVES ON THE SILENCE”

M GHANDI

DOING YOUR FIRST HIKE

It might have taken a few weeks of dedicated retail therapy, but you are now all geared up to go walkabout. If you are planning a group outing, arrange an informal meeting and identify a day or overnight hike in the immediate area that is agreeable to everyone. Utilize the get-together to discuss group responsibilities, assigning specific tasks to various members. Exchange phone numbers and decide on an easily identifiable meeting place.

   A check list is the easiest way to make sure that group members are clear on their duties, permitting you to tick off specific tasks upon completion. If you plan to hike solo or with just one companion, all these tasks will be your responsibility and you need to be extra careful, as you will have no backup on the trail.

Short hike check list

Entry fees and permits: Is an entry fee required and are you able to pay at the start of the trail. Some hiking permits need to be procured from the offices of relevant authorities in another town or city.

Food: Take enough food for your planned meals, as well as sufficient emergency rations to last you through the night should you get lost.

Water: Take a minimum of 2lt’s per person per day, even if there are water points on the trail. The body’s water requirements vary, depending on the temperature and the level of exercise, but expect to drink 1lt for every hour spent on the trail.

Weather forecast: Get a weather forecast covering the duration of your hike and, if possible, find out what the weather was like during the week preceding your visit. This will help you contend with unexpected conditions when you arrive at your destination.

Clothing: Never trust the weather report completely and always take along a compact raincoat, cap or hat, thermal top and a space blanket just in case.

Shelter: You will need a sleeping bag and tent if there are no fixed shelters or caves at your overnight spot.

First aid: Pack an approved first aid kit covering all eventualities you may encounter along your route. Contents should be checked to make sure that no medical products are out of date.

Telephone: Take a mobile phone with you. Leave it switched off and in a waterproof bag. Make sure that everyone knows the pin number and passwords. Trails are not the place for telephone discussions; don’t spoil the serenity of nature for others by chatting on your cellphone.

Sun protection: Shielding yourself against the sun’s ultraviolet rays is imperative, so pack your sunblock, lip salve and protective clothing.

Emergency procedures: Plan beforehand what you will do in case of an emergency and ensure you have the necessary contact numbers on hand. Notify someone trustworthy of your estimated return time so they can contact the authorities if something goes wrong. In areas with rescue registers available; always fill them in and do so properly – your life might just depend on it!

Maps: Even if the route is well mark, carry a map of the area. Most short hikes do not need additional navigation aids.

Land access: Unless hiking on a designated trail, never assume you have access to a specific section of land. Contact the relevant local authority, land owner or regulatory body to find out about access requirements.

Extras: Items that can make a hike more memorable include cameras, binoculars and field guides, so take them at your own discretion. Don’t forget sunglasses, toilet paper and a spade or trowel.

Choosing your route

   For the moment, you will be planning a day or overnight hike on a well-signposted route. This does not mean that you should not plan, as things can go wrong, even on a controlled trail. Choose your destination with your party’s weakest walker in mind, ascertaining that they are able to cope with the terrain, temperature and altitude expected along the way.

   Assist those in the group who may be struggling to keep up. Never be too proud to turn back if you feel that you are personally not coping; continuing might endanger your life as well as the lives of others. In order to determine the grading of a trail, you must consider factors such as the length of the trail, its environmental character and your pack weight.

Trail environments

   Vegetation is determined by altitude and rainfall, while the density of foliage along sections of your route may affect your speed of advance and ability to navigate. A short hike in an arid, flat environment will therefore be easier than a route through dense vegetation or one where you have to negotiate wetland marshes.

   Remember that a change in weather conditions may completely alter an undemanding route in minutes: a downpour can send a raging flash-flood down a dry river bed; lightning from a storm makes rocky outcrops and ridges extremely unsafe; gale-force winds make high traverses dangerous. River crossings can become hazardous if the water level is too high; if possible wait for the water to subside to a safer level. If you absolutely have to cross, use your hiking poles or a stick to probe under the surface and to help stabilize yourself against the current. Always release your backpack’s hip-belt and chest strap, so that you can shrug off the pack if you should slip and fall.

 Never attempt any obstacles if you are not entirely confident that you can cope with the consequences.

We as hikers, explorers, and
adventurers have the absolute duty to respect and protect our Wildernesses.
Nobody else will do it for us. Take ownership!

The End.

Safe Hiking.

References and Acknowledgements

From the book – Hiking, the essential guide to…. – J Marais

Photos – Willem Pelser

Compiled by Willem Pelser

THE DRAGON MOUNTAIN

          "BEWARE IF YOU DO NOT EXPERIENCE FEAR IN THE WILDERNESS.

      NOT TO FEEL FEAR DEPRIVES YOU OF THE SUPREME JOY OF MASTERING IT”

WALTER BONATTI

   THE
DRAGON MOUNTAIN

   The Drakensberg range is part of the Great Escarpment which is the edge of the interior plateau of Southern Africa and which extends from the North-Eastern Transvaal, near the Tropic of Capricorn, for a distance of about 960 kilometres to end in the Stormberg in the Eastern Cape.

   The Wolkberg, in the extreme North, is spectacular and well deserves its name – “the Cloud Mountain”. It rises at the point where the range separates the Highveld from the Lowveld. It was on the slopes of the Wolkberg, where the clouds cling to the litchen-covered cliffs, that John Buchan, the novelist who eventually to become Governor General of Canada, dreamt his dreams and from the highest point, the Iron Crown of Prester John, one can see the great chain running southwards towards the KZN border.

   At this point the range turns in a south-westerly direction, separating KZN from the Orange Free State, until it climbs majestically to Mont-aux-Sources. Here it swings in a south-easterly direction, now separating KZN from Lesotho and seems to tower over the rest of South Africa. At giant’s Castle the mountain wall swings once again in a south-westerly direction and continues as part of the “Roof of Southern Africa” to the Cape border. Continuing on its journey, but not quite as high, it now separates Lesotho from the Cape Province finally to end in the Stormberg of the Eastern Province.

   From Mont-aux-Sources to the Cape border the escarpment is known as the KZN Drakensberg or the “High Berg”, where the range averages a height of about 3000 meters and is one of the most important geographical features in South Africa, containing some of the most rugged and wild mountain scenery on the African continent.

   The origin of the name Drakensberg is obscure and probably we shall never know who actually decided to call the range the “Dragon Mountain”. But one thing is certain that long before the Voortrekkers reached the area in 1837, this was its name.

   Did the name perhaps originate from the serpents of Bushmen mythology? Bushmen certainly believed in supernatural serpents, which can be seen in paintings in the various shelters of the KZN Drakensberg. It is possible, however, that the black tribesmen after seeing those paintings, or having heard stories of mythological serpents related by the Bushmen, believed that these creatures actually lived in the remoter regions and on meeting Europeans they told them about these monsters. This seems feasible when one considers that, in the days of Sir Isaac Newton, “…….. The Alps then were still haunted by portentous dragons” – as described by Sir Leslie Stephen in 1870. The Bloemfontein Advertiser on 26^th April 1877, published a letter to the editor headed “Strange if True” which describe how a Boer and his son had seen a huge dragon, the thickness of a wagon wheel, with wings and a forked tail. The Boer called it the flying Dragon. The writer said that when asked why it is called the Dragon Mountains, he was told because a dragon lives there. The writer also stated that the tribesmen told him the same story. He always had it described as an enormous serpent.

   Allen Francis Gardener, founder of the City of Durban and also the first European to explore the remote regions of the southern part of the KZN Drakensberg in 1835, refers in his book to the range as Quathlamba. This name was also used in early maps. The name, sometimes spelled as “uKhalamba” is in effect the correct Zulu spelling of the first word. It means “a barrier of up-pointed spears”.

   The Amangwane living in the foothills often refer to the Berg as uluNdi, which simply means “the heights”.

   The KZN Drakensberg is the highest mountain range in South Africa giving rise to many of the major rivers so important to the economy of the country. The High Berg is really an escarpment and many a visitor has climbed to the top expecting to find a great drop on the other side similar to the one looking back into KZN. Instead he finds, confronting him, the desolate mountainous plateau of Lesotho.

   The watershed, which is often the edge of the escarpment, is the national border between Lesotho and South Africa. 

We as hikers, explorers, and
adventurers have the absolute duty to respect and protect our Wildernesses.
Nobody else will do it for us. Take ownership!

The End.

Safe Hiking.

References and Acknowledgements

Photos – Willem Pelser

From the Book - “A Cradle of Rivers, the Natal Drakensberg” – David A Dodds

Compiled by -   Willem Pelser

THUNDERSTORMS IN THE DRAKENSBERG MOUNTAINS

 

When you see lightning, it has already missed you. When you hear thunder, relax, the show is over. The noise is just the audience rushing for the exits.”

Ira Wolfert

THUNDERSTORMS IN THE DRAKENSBERG MOUNTAINS

The Dragon of the Dragon Mountains comes out of his lair and roars defiance with Fire and Fury…”

   One of the most dramatic and awe-inspiring displays of nature is the sky-splitting spear of light that flashes from the thunder cloud during a storm and the deafening roar that follows it. It is not surprising that our ancestors were unable to explain lightning, and consigned it to the world of the supernatural. Today, we know that lightning is no more than a gigantic spark, and our scientists have been able to explain exactly what brings it about.

   When a thunder cloud is being formed, a mass of warm, humid air rises until it cools and condenses into water vapor and tiny ice crystals. In due course, as the clouds grow in size, these droplets and crystals coalesce to form raindrops and hail. When this happens, a separation of electric charges takes place within the cloud by a complicated process that need not detain us here. What is important is that the cloud mass now becomes a huge dynamo, generating millions of volts of electricity. It acts, too, as a huge storage battery, with the positive terminal at the top of the cloud, and the negative terminal at the bottom – perhaps several kilometers below.

   Meanwhile, the base of the cloud which carries an overall negative charge induces a positive charge on the surface of the earth directly below. As the cloud drift over the countryside, the positive charge on the ground follows the negative charge like shadow, climbing trees, ridges, pinnacles – anything that will bring it closer to the cloud.

   We must now note that when a negatively charged object is brought into contact with one that has a positive charge, electrons flow from one to the other so that the two objects become equalized, and the tension between them neutralized. If, however, the current is high enough, they do not even need to touch – the electrons will leap across the space separating them, making a spark. Lightning is nothing more than spark on a gigantic scale. It is in fact, the high current discharge which cancels the electrical imbalance within the storm cloud itself, or between the cloud and the earth. The potential difference in energy between the cloud and the ground can be as much as a thousand-million volts of electricity! It is estimated that there are about 1 800 storms in operation throughout the world at any one time, and that lightning strikes the earth about 100 times every second.

   When lightning flashes, we do not see the electrons themselves. What we see is the air particles in the strike path which have been super-heated to incandescence. The particles are made white-hot by the lightning current, and reach temperatures as high as 30 000 degrees centigrade. The super-heated air expands explosively, producing a shock-wave, which breaks the sound barrier and we hear thunder.

   The long drawn-out peal that issues from a single stroke of lightning may last for several seconds. There are several reasons for this. In the first place, sound travels at about 330 meters per second, or about one kilometer in 3 seconds – far slower than the speed of light. If lightning strikes nearby, the first acoustic signal to reach our ears (usually a deafening crash) will come from the end of the stroke, perhaps only a short distance away. Sound, however, will be generated along the entire length of the lightning path, which might extend several kilometers into the sky. This means that thunder will be heard continuously until the sound waves from the furthest point of the strike channel have reached us. The sound we hear is uneven because lightning normally takes an uneven path. This brings about the rolling and rumbling effects which last for many seconds. Reflections, or echoes, from mountains or valleys may accentuate these sound effects, and cause them to continue even longer. This is one of the reasons why storms in mountain regions are so dramatic.

   Incidentally, with our knowledge of the speed of sound, we can easily determine the approximate distance of a lightning strike. All we have to do is count the number of seconds it takes for the peal of thunder to reach us after the flash appeared, and divide the time in seconds by three. This will give the distance in kilometers between us and the point of impact.

   Every year, people in Kwa-Zulu Natal are killed by lightning. Most of these are people living in grass huts, but lightning fatalities are not unknown in the Drakensberg. Many years ago, a man and a girl (daughter of the Administrator of the Free State) were killed on the escarpment close to the Namahadi pass near the Chain Ladder in the Royal Natal National Park. A brass plaque, commemorating their deaths, use to stand at the spot – a solemn reminder to all passers-by of the perils of a summer storm. A game ranger, John Clarke and his girlfriend, Carol Richter, together with their dog, were killed by lightning during a “dry storm” on the 20^th December 1979. They were standing on a ledge overlooking the Injasuthi Valley at the time, watching the storm built up.

    Lightning generally follows the shortest possible route between a cloud and the earth. For this reason we should avoid tall trees, rocky outcrops, and high summits, particularly if they are well defined. There is, however some evidence to prove that a tall pinnacle or rock projection can act as a lightning conductor, and provide a zone of protection for the hiker. The area protected by the high point is termed the lightning shadow, and its area has a diameter four times the height of the projection.

   If the hiker finds himself in an exposed position during a thunder storm, he should avoid running for shelter at all cost. Running in a potentially charged area creates a magnetic field which attracts lightning. He should crouch down on some kind of insulating material, such as a sleeping bag or pile of clothing. Standing or lying down can be dangerous. You should keep out of vertical cracks and chimneys flowing with water, and away from dripping overhangs. Water is a good conductor of lightning, and hikers have received severe shocks even hundreds of meters below a summit after a strike. Rock climbers should remember that a wet abseil rope will provide a good path for an electrical current, while belay ropes can direct a stream of water on to the body.

   Perhaps the very best advice is, keep calm – never give way to panic. If you have taken reasonable safeguards and precautions, your chances of being hit by lightning are very slim. Enjoy the show!!

   Sunrise from the summit of the Berg is never more beautiful than after a night of storms. The air is clean and bracing, and the silence is undisturbed. The light breaks through the parting clouds in a blaze of glory, and lays a mantle of gold over the rain-washed peaks. This is the moment to be awake and alert, for the beauty of daybreak never lingers.

If you are in the mountains, you need to assess your situation and decide what to do. Here are some guidelines:

   If you’re above the tree line on an exposed ridge, get lower. Don’t hide under trees.

   If you’re in a forest and can’t find a clearing, find the lowest group of trees you can and try to stay away from their bases.

   If you can, look for a cave, or find a low, open space, a meadow or a clearing of some kind, and head to the lowest ground possible.  The entrance to a cave can be hazardous, so move in and out as quickly as possible.

   Stay away from taller rocks. Rocks can attract lightning the same as anything; if there’s an appealing shelter under a rock; make sure it’s not very tall.

   If you’re in an open space, spread out about 20 feet apart from each other and away from tall trees, and try to stay dry and warm. Wait for the storm to clear, or until you haven’t had lightning closer to you than 10 seconds (mark the time from when you see the flash to when you hear the thunder) for ten minutes, and then get to safety.

   Once you’ve found your place of refuge, whether in a group of shorter trees, the back of a cave, a low spot in a meadow, or a low spot on a talus slope, get into the lightning position. Minimize your contact with the ground by standing on a foam pad with your feet close together and crouch or squat to lower your overall height. If you don’t have a foam pad, you can use your pack. Make sure to keep your shoes on, as the sole will help insulate you. The idea is to minimize your contact with the ground and stay insulated from the ground.

   If you’re at your camp, evaluate how close a proper shelter is. If a building or your car is nearby, then head for it.  Otherwise, evaluate the safety of your camp spot. Are you near tall trees? Are you on a highpoint in a clearing? If your tent is not near tall trees, and you’re in a low spot in a clearing, you’re probably best staying in it. Remove all the metal items you can and put them far away from your tent. Try to stay insulated from the ground using your sleeping pads and backpacks. The exception would be if you have an old tent with steel or non-anodized aluminum poles, as these will conduct electricity. If your tent has anodized aluminum poles or fiberglass poles and you’re pitched in a good spot, staying in your tent may be your best option.

   If you’re climbing, you’re in a tough spot. The best option is to go down. If this isn’t possible and you have to wait it out on the wall, try to find a good ledge or a cave you can take shelter on or hide in. Space out as best you can from your climbing partners. If you get stuck at a hanging belay, have some people lower down so your group is as spaced out as possible. Bolts and chains will attract/conduct electricity, but your anodized aluminum carabineers won’t (provided the coating isn’t worn off). It’s important to remember, however, that everything conducts electricity when it’s wet.

   If someone gets struck by lightning, there are three major risks: electrical shock, secondary heat production, and explosive force. Electrical shock and skin burns are the most common injuries sustained after a lightning strike. Send for help immediately, treat for shock right away, make sure the victim is breathing and has a strong pulse, administer chest compressions and rescue breathing if necessary, and then treat any burns. Make sure to minimize additional lightning risk while treating victims. 

   Remember: the easiest and most effective way to stay safe in a lightning/thunderstorm is not to get caught in one. Be alert to signs in the weather that will tell you a thunderstorm is coming. If you do get caught, assess your situation. How far are you from safety? How severe is the storm? Can you go down? Should you stay put? In high alpine terrain, speed is safety. Early starts help you get off the mountain or out of the danger zone before a storm hits. Having a good base of fitness, whether hiking, climbing, or paddling, will help you be able to step on the gas and get out of a bad spot if a storm moves in on your fun.

   Do NOT seek shelter under a picnic shelter, lone tree, or other object to keep you dry. It will attract lightning. The rain won't kill you so it is better to be wet and alive than dry and dead.

   Come down from high places. Seek a valley or depression in the terrain. Be careful of entering a dry wash that may channel a flashflood from the rainstorm.

Seek shelter in a low stand of trees. This will help keep you dry and not attract lightning.

   If you are above tree line, seek shelter in the lowest area you can reach, preferably with large boulders around so you can get some protection from driving rain behind some smaller boulders.

   Put on your raingear and remove your backpack.

   If you have a metal frame pack, leave it 100 feet from where you are seeking shelter.

 If you have a hiking stick or poles, leave them with your pack.

   Your group should not huddle together. Instead, have each person find shelter about 100 feet apart. This minimizes the possibility of multiple casualties from a single strike.

   If you are not able to get to any shelter, you need to become a small target and cross your fingers. Minimize your contact with the ground and minimize your height. 

Crouching down on the balls of your feet placed close together with your head tucked down is the recommended position. This position reduces your exposure and encourages any lightning strike to travel down your back and hopefully have less damage to vital organs. Lightning travels through the ground from the point of impact in random tendrils similar to tree roots. The smaller your footprint, the less chance there is of you being shocked from a nearby strike.

Cover your ears and close your eyes to protect from the intense noise and light of nearby strikes.

Lightning First Aid

• ·        Lightning is an extreme electric shock and has similar first aid requirements for burns and heart attacks.
• 
  
• ·        Immediately after a close strike, do a headcount of everyone in your party having them call back to you that they are ok. If someone does not respond, go to their location. 
• 
  
•      Only allow those you need to gather. Keep everyone else spread out since there is still danger of additional strikes.
• 
  
• ·        There is no electrical residue after a strike. It is safe to touch someone that has been struck.
• 
  
• ·        If there are multiple victims, prioritize care needed. A victim that is not breathing is highest priority. There is a relatively good chance of reviving a lightning victim with CPR.
• 
  
• ·        Check for and give first aid for burns. Check around jewelry, buckles, and fingers and toes especially.
• 
  
• ·        Treat for shock, keeping the victim warm and calm.
• ·        Immediately send for help.

We as hikers, explorers, and adventurers have the absolute duty to respect and protect our Wildernesses. Nobody else will do it for us. Take ownership!

 

 

The End.

 

Safe Hiking.

 

References and Acknowledgements

Photos - “A Camera in Quathlamba” – ML Pearce

Compiled by - W Pelser